


begging for trouble

by Jules1398



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Squip, Feelings Realization, Friends to Lovers, M/M, jeremy is dumb but i love him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-12 08:43:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15336129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jules1398/pseuds/Jules1398
Summary: Jeremy's dad thinks he's dating Michael and he has no clue how he came to that idea or what the hell he's going to do about it.





	begging for trouble

**Author's Note:**

> listen,, i watched a shitty vid of this musical yesterday and it already owns my fucking ass. so evidently I have never written these characters before. i hope this is actually okay.  
> [come say hi!](http://transjonas.tumblr.com/)

Jeremy never expected that his father of all people would be the one to screw up his friendship with Michael, but here they were.

It all started after a long day of gaming in Jeremy’s room. They had spent the entire day locked in there playing video games, eating pizza, and blabbering about school. It wasn’t uncommon for them. They did it every weekend and most days after Jeremy finished play rehearsal.

In fact, everything was normal until Jeremy was walking Michael out and saying goodbye. Usually, Jeremy’s dad would be in bed by now due to his serial laziness, but that night he was up late finishing some work on his laptop.

“Man, you guys have the weirdest dates ever,” he mumbled. “Have a nice night, Michael.”

Jeremy flushed bright red.

“Uh, thank you, Mr. Heere. You too,” Michael said before turning to Jeremy. “See you tomorrow at school.”

“Bye,” he replied, closing the door as soon as his best friend had walked through it.

He walked to the window and waved to Michael as he pulled away. After his car was down the street, Jeremy turned to his dad.

“What the hell?” he asked.

“Huh?” Jeremy’s dad replied, looking up from his work in confusion.

Jeremy crossed his arms. “Don’t play dumb, Dad. What you said about me and Michael.”

“Oh,” he said with a frown. “I was just teasing, Jeremy. As long as you two are having fun together, it’s still a valid date.”

His eyebrows shot up. “You think I’m dating Michael?”

“Aren’t you?” his dad asked.

“No!” Jeremy exclaimed.

His dad blinked for a few moments. “I’m sorry. I just thought, well, you two are always in that room and sometimes I walk in and you’re cuddling, so I figured-”

“Those are best friend things, Dad,” Jeremy interrupted. “We’re just being the same best friends that we’ve always been.”

Jeremy’s dad nodded. “I got it. I’m sorry if that was embarrassing for you, but I’m sure it won’t really matter. Like you said, Michael is your best friend.”

“Yep,” Jeremy said, popping the p in the word, which only made it sound more awkward. He retreated to his room and grabbed his phone off of the nightstand. There was a text from Michael.

_ Player 1 (9:35) _

_ yo i just wanted to let you know i got home safe. cya tmw _

 

Jeremy considered not responding. He didn’t want Michael to get the wrong idea and think that he had a crush on him that his dad knew about it or something. But nothing had really changed, so why couldn’t he reply to his best friend?

 

_ Player 2 (9:41) _

_ sweet. see ya _

 

He put his phone back on his nightstand and ran his hand through his hair. Nothing was different. A single sentence couldn’t change their friendship. But then why did it make him feel so fucking anxious?

* * *

The next day, Jeremy half-hoped not to see his best friend as he headed toward his locker, which made him feel kind of shitty. It didn’t matter anyway. Michael showed up at his locker about three seconds after he did.

“Hey,” his friend greeted as he leaned against the neighboring locker. “How did you sleep?”

How did he  _ sleep _ ? Was that a question that best friends usually asked? Could Michael tell that Jeremy didn’t sleep a wink last night?

Jeremy shrugged. “Fine, I guess.”

“Hey, I was thinking, maybe after school we could go to that new burger place downtown,” Michael suggested. “I haven’t checked it out yet, but I hear it’s good.”

“Can’t,” Jeremy replied, closing his locker. “I have play practice after school.”

“I mean, you can skip one practice, can’t you?” Michael asked. “Tell Mr. Reyes that you’re gonna hurl. He knows how our cafeteria food is.”

He shook his head. “Christine is going to be there.”

“Yeah, and she’s always there. You know who isn’t there? Your best friend in the whole entire universe. Also, burgers,” Michael reasoned.

Jeremy couldn’t help but smile a little. “How about Saturday?” he proposed. “We can get burgers and walk around the mall in search of rare sodas.”

“Sounds like a”  _ date?  _ “plan,” Michael said with a smile. “I’ll see you in third period for another extremely thrilling government class.”

“See you then,” Jeremy replied.

He smacked his palm against his forehead as Michael walked away. Why had he thought Michael was going to say date? On what planet would he  _ ever _ say date? 

Jeremy shouldn’t even be thinking about his best friend that way. He was supposed to want to go on dates with Christine. Christine was cute and nice and  _ safe _ . With Christine messing up meant everything was the same as before.

With Michael, everything was at stake.

The warning bell sounded and Jeremy took off toward precalc and was joined by Chloe on the way there.

“What the fuck is up with you?” she asked. “You look like someone just told you that your dad died in a boat fire or something.”

He wrinkled his eyebrows. “Huh? What the hell is that even supposed to mean?”

She smiled. “Ah, there’s good old Jeremy, finally broken from his trance. So, really, what’s up? Did you forget out the test today?”

Jeremy’s eyes widened. “The  _ what _ today?”

Chloe stared at him for a moment. “We have a test. In precalculus. In about four minutes.”

“Fuck me,” Jeremy grumbled, rubbing his temples.

“Yeah, well I don’t think Brooke would be all to happy with me if I did,” Chloe joked with a wink.

Jeremy was a fucking disaster academically and personally. Fan-fucking-tastic.

* * *

It was now Wednesday and Jeremy had been completely and utterly unable to regain his cool. Every time he was around Michael, he freaked out a little. And his sleep schedule? Practically nonexistent! That fucking stupid off-hand comment had his world completely teetering on the axis. He couldn’t even focus long enough to jerk off anymore.

He was sitting at lunch, jammed between Brooke and Rich, just so he didn’t have to sit next to Michael when he showed up. Jeremy felt guilty as hell about avoiding him, but he really needed space in order to avoid somehow screwing everything up. If Michael got the wrong idea, he might run like hell and where would a player 2 be without his player 1?

When Michael showed up, Jeremy didn’t even look up from his sandwich. Just the sight of Michael sent weird feelings coursing through his veins, a mix of hopeful what-ifs and dreadful guilt.

“So, how about that sub in English today?” Jenna asked. “He was kind of hot, huh?”

“For once I was happy to have been stuck in the front row,” Brooke joked. “That man had a jawline stronger than Jake, like, in general.”

“You just let her ogle teachers like this?” Jake replied, gesturing toward Chloe.

“Brooke knows who’s gonna give her what she needs,” Chloe answered with a wink toward her girlfriend.

“You two are so adorable,” Michael said with a smile and, fuck, Michael’s smile was totally melting Jeremy’s insides.

Jeremy turned toward Christine. “Hey, what are you doing after play practice tomorrow?”

“Me?” she asked. He nodded. “Nothing. Why?”

He shrugged. “I was wondering if you’d want to come over and run some lines or something.”

Jeremy chose to ignore the glances his friends were sending toward each other at his sudden bravery. Well, it was actually more of an act of terror than bravery, but none of his friends needed to know that.

“Ummm,” she began, looking a little torn, but in the end she perked up. “Sure, it sounds like fun. I can drive you then if you want, rather than your usual carpool with Chloe.”

“Awesome,” he said with a smile, finally scanning the reactions of his friends.

Most of them showed a mixture of shock, surprise, and confusion. Michael looked about three shades paler than normal and took on Jeremy’s expression from the beginning of lunch: a blank stare at his food.

It was better this way and Michael would get it eventually. Jeremy wasn’t trying to avoid his best friend. He was just trying to fix things before they got really fucked up.

* * *

After play practice on Thursday, Jeremy climbed into Christine’s passenger seat. He had texted before leaving to tell his dad to actually put some pants on for once, so things at home should be all set.

When they walked in, his dad was sitting on the couch, in khakis, fortunately. He got up when he saw them walk in and headed toward them, offering a hand out toward Christine.

“Hi,” he greeted. “I’m Jeremy’s dad.”

She shook his hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Heere. I’m Christine.”

“Do you need anything?” he asked. “A snack or a drink or something?”

‘We’re fine. Just gonna run some lines,” Jeremy said before dragging Christine toward his bedroom, which he had spent hours cleaning the evening before.

“Your dad seems nice,” she commented after they walked into the room. Jeremy closed the door behind them even though it was unlikely that anything major was going to happen.

“He’s okay I guess,” Jeremy said with a shrug. “He’s been kind of lazy since Mom left. Like, I had to text him to put pants on. Oh, and sometimes he says dumb stuff.”

“Dumb stuff as in like racist stuff or something?” she asked carefully as she reached into her backpack and pulled out her script.

He shook his head and chuckled. “No. Dumb stuff like somehow he got it in his head that I was dating Michael. I mean, he’s my  _ best friend _ .”

“Brooke and Chloe are best friends,” Christine pointed out. “With how close you and Michael are, I don’t his mistake was too outlandish.”

“You’re not here to talk about them though, are you,” Jeremy said in an effort to change the subject.

“Then what am I here for?” she asked, waving her script around. “Because you say we’re going to run lines, but I’m the only one here with my script out.”

“I was going to get mine..” he protested.

“Were you?” she asked. “Or did you invite me over for the reason Jenna told me you probably did.”

“Yes, I do like you but I just wanted to hang out,” he reasoned.

She crossed her arms. “For some reason, I don’t think that’s the truth.”

“Can we just work on the play?” he asked, pulling his script from his bag.

Like promised, they ran their lines for a while, but their characters didn’t really interact all that much, so there wasn’t a ton to run over. After about a half an hour, they decided to call it quits.

“Christine, you’re a really great actress, did you know that?” he said.

“Thanks,” she said with a small smile.

He took a step closer to her. “I think it might be cool if we ran lines together again some other time.”

She blushed. “I mean, that could be fun.”

He closed his eyes as tight as he could and puckered his lips before moving toward her. His lips were met with the palm of her hand.

“Jeremy, I think you’re making a mistake,” she said softly. “Look, I like you. I really do. I’ve had a crush on you for like, months. But I can’t do this to myself.”

He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “We can go slow if you want. I didn’t mean to be so forward.”

Christine shook her head. “I think there’s a reason you’re being so forward. You used to be a stumbling mess around me and, trust me, it went both ways. And now? You’re super confident around me and you’re the same kind of mess around someone else.”

“No, Christine I like you,” he insisted, more to himself than to her.

She frowned. “Jeremy, you like Michael. Everyone but you two can see it. I think some of the others even have a few bets going. Heck, even your dad can see it.”

He blinked. “I like Michael.”

Christine nodded.

“But I don’t want to ruin everything,” he told her, terrified out of his mind.

“You won’t,” she assured him. “If you two get together, how much is going to change? It’ll be the same, but you’ll kiss sometimes.”

“I don’t know if I can risk it,” Jeremy sighed. “I need to get over him.”

“I can’t tell you what to do,” Christine said. “Just don’t hurt him.”

“I won’t,” he promised. “Trust me. I care about Michael more than anyone.”

He walked her to the door and she left. This time, his dad didn’t say a word.

* * *

Jeremy decided that the only way to solve his problem was to get drunk out of his mind. He always had his best ideas when he was drunk or high. He also had some terrible ones, but he chose not to act on most of those.

Late Friday night, he made his way to Jake’s house for another party that would inevitably be a wild time. It was the first one since Rich had set the oven on fire by attempting to make brownies before getting a little too caught up with Jake, so everybody who was anybody would be back for the reopening of the Dillinger party house.

Jeremy didn’t even greet anyone after getting there. He made a beeline for the kitchen and poured a cup of vodka big enough to get him trashed, downing a quarter of it on the spot.

“My god, Jeremy,” said a concerned looking Brooke who had watched the whole thing.

“That was fucking badass,” Rich said from beside her. “I never knew that there was a party animal inside of Jeremy Heere, but here he is surprising me.”

“What’s going on?” asked Jake as he walked into the kitchen and wrapped an arm around Rich’s waist.

“Jeremy is going ham on the vodka already,” Brooke answered.

“It’s a party. I’m having fun,” he replied before chugging most of the cup to prove his point.

“Take it easy. I don’t want to have to clean up more vomit than I have to,” Jake pleaded.

“I’m perfectly fine,” he protested, downing the rest of the cup before pouring himself some more.

Brooke snatched the bottle from his hands. “You need to take it easy. Getting wasted in the first fifteen minutes makes you annoying, not fun.”

“Yeah, you should get out of the kitchen and go socialize,” Jake suggested. “There will still be booze left at the end of the night if you desperately need more.”

He reluctantly obeyed them and went into the living room to socialize with his other friends. It wasn’t long until the alcohol caught up with him. He had gone too hard too fast.

At one point, Jeremy tugged on Chloe’s arm but ended up falling and dragging her down with him. He giggled like a madman.

“I’m sorry. I jus’ wanted to ask you a question,” he slurred. “And I fell getting your attention.”

She pushed him off and stood up, smoothing her skirt. “What is it, Jeremy?”

“How did you know that Brooke liked you back?” he asked.

“She kissed me,” Chloe replied. “I feel like that’s usually a pretty sound way to know someone likes you.”

“I tried to Christine yesterday,” he confessed. “But it was a bad idea ‘cause I actually don’t like her. Guess your logic has flaws.”

“Well, it worked fine for me,” she pointed out.

She saw something and smiled, but Jeremy couldn’t see what it was since he was still sprawled on the ground.

Michael appeared above him and offered a hand to help him up. He was dressed the exact same way as he was dressed at school that morning, but he still looked amazing.

“Michael!” Jeremy exclaimed as he allowed his best friend to help him up.

He wrapped Michael in a hug and the other boy froze for a second before returning it.

“Christ, Jeremy. It’s not even 10:30 yet,” he replied. “You’re so out of it.”

“I’m having fun!” he exclaimed, stepping back from Michael and throwing his arms in the air.

“You’re going to get sick if you drink more,” Michael told him. “I’m taking you home.”

Jeremy shook his head. “Dad’s home. He’s gonna be mad. I already told him I was sleeping over at Jake’s.”

“He’ll understand,” Michael replied, grabbing Jeremy’s hand and dragging him out of the house and toward his car.

Michael walked him to the passenger side, but Jeremy pushed him away and quickly stumbled toward the bushes before throwing up all over them. He wondered if the vodka would get the plants drunk too.

His best friend rushed over and rubbed his back. “Are you good to ride in my car or do you think there’s more coming?”

“I’m fine,” he assured him. “I’m not even that drunk.”

“Sure,” Michael replied, helping Jeremy into the car and buckling his seatbelt for him before getting into the driver’s seat.

“Just so you know there’s nothing between me an’ Christine,” Jeremy told his friend after a few silent moments on the road. “We just worked on play stuff.”

“It’s none of my business what you do or do not do with Christine,” Michael sighed. “Sometimes I get sick of hearing about her all the time, but if she makes you happy, then I’m happy.”

“She’s my friend,” he stated.

“And you’re my friend,” Michael pointed out, but Jeremy was far too drunk to understand what he was implying.

“Best friends,” Jeremy muttered as Michael pulled into his driveway.

Michael came around and helped him out of his seat and into his house.

“Jeremy, I thought you were staying at-” Mr. Heere began upon seeing them. “Oh.”

“Chloe called me. Said he was out of it,” Michael informed him. “I figured that it was more important that he get home safely than avoid getting in trouble.”

Mr. Heere nodded. “Thank you for taking care of him, Michael.”

“Dad, I’m not even drunk,” Jeremy lied.

“Jeremy, Michael is literally carrying half your weight on his shoulders because you can’t stand up straight,” he pointed out. “We’ll talk about this later. You should drink some water and go to bed.”

Michael helped him up the stairs and into his bedroom, sitting him down on the bed. He crouched down and pulled off his friend’s shoes before moving to the waistband of his jeans and unbuttoning them before pulling them off. 

He stood up and began to walk away, but Jeremy caught his arm, nearly falling out of his bed in the process.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“I’m going to grab you a glass of water. I’ll be right back,” Michael informed him.

Jeremy sat there waiting for an agonizing two and a half minutes before his best friend returned with the promised glass of water.

“You’re going to drink every drop,” Michael ordered.

Jeremy nodded and downed the entire glass just liked he was asked. “Thank you.”

“Of course,” Michael said with a soft smile. “You know I’m here for you.”

“Can you stay?” he asked, scooting over to make room for Michael on his bed.

Michael paused for a moment but nodded, grabbing his phone to type out a quick text to his mom. He shed his own jeans and walked to the doorway so that he could turn out the light and close the door. After laying down next to Jeremy, Michael took off his glasses and placed them on the nightstand. The two of them laid facing each other, but Jeremy didn’t know how well Michael could see him.

“I’m sorry I’m a mess,” Jeremy said. “I screw everything up and you always are there to pick up after me.”

“You aren’t a mess, Jer,” Michael assured him, reaching to run a hand through his hair, which was probably sweaty and gross.

“Do you remember the promise we made when we were ten?” Jeremy asked.

“Which one?” Michael asked.

“The one after the first time my mom stormed out,” he clarified. “When we decided that if we were both single when we were thirty, we would get married.”

Michael was silent for a moment, but he eventually whispered a response. “Yeah, I remember that.”

“Sometimes I hope it actually happens,” Jeremy admitted. “Because nobody makes me happier than you.”

“Jer, you’re drunk,” Michael reminded him, seemingly alarmed.

“Doesn’t mean it’s not true,” he said with a shrug before rolling over and closing his eyes.

“Jeremy,” Michael whispered softly, and that was the last thing he remembered before falling asleep.

* * *

Jeremy woke up to an empty bed and a pounding headache and part of him wondered if he had hallucinated the previous night. But, if not for Michael, he wouldn’t have gotten into his bed in the first place.

He padded downstairs in search of Advil. Hopefully it would kick in before his dad started hounding his ass for going to a party and drinking too much.

Except, the only one downstairs was Michael, who was sitting on the couch and playing with his phone.

“Good morning,” Jeremy croaked as he opened the pill bottle and poured two into his hand.

“It’s 1:30,” Michael replied. “And you look and sound like absolute shit.”

“Are you telling me I slept for over twelve hours?” he asked before downing the pills with a full glass of water.

“I’m pretty impressed, actually,” Michael laughed. “Your dad left to go grocery shopping so you’re safe for now.”

“I should shower,” Jeremy said, since he could smell himself, and that was never a good sign.

Michael nodded. “I might sneak out when you’re in there. Get a head start on my homework.”

“Nope, that’s not allowed,” he replied. “I seem to recall that we made some epic plans today.”

“Are you sure you’re up for it?” Michael asked, scanning him up and down.

“After I shower I will be,” Jeremy assured him, even though he knew that his head would still be hurting like hell. “After all, I can’t miss out on my first real date with Michael Mell.”

“Your what?” Michael asked with wide eyes.

“Uhh, if you don’t want it to be a date it doesn’t have to be, I just thought like-” he began rambling, but Michael walked toward him and put his hands on his shoulders to shut him up.

“Jer, I would love to go on a date with you,” he said. “That was the entire point of me asking you in the first place. After your dad thought we were together I thought that you told him about liking me or something.”

“I didn’t,” Jeremy replied. “But I definitely like you. I guess he was just ahead of the curve on that one.”

Michael smiled. “You’re so cute,” he said. “I can’t wait to go on a date with you.”

Jeremy leaned forward and kissed his best friend, in a way that somehow felt more natural than his attempt at kissing Christine. This time, his lips weren’t met with a hand, but with Michael’s own soft lips.

His heart was like a phoenix, endlessly burning to the ground and rising from the ashes. Michael understood him like nobody else did. Michael was the guy that he was meant to be with and, by some miracle, he actually liked him back.

They kissed for a few minutes, which was not nearly long enough.

“I’d love to kiss you for longer, but I can’t,” Michael huffed.

“What? Why?” he asked, panic in his voice.

Michael laughed. “Not like that. I physically cannot stand to kiss you right now. Your mouth tastes like barf and you smell like absolute shit.”

“Fair,” Jeremy said with a nod. “I’ll go shower and brush my teeth. And then when I get back-”

Michael grinned. “Burgers and a million kisses.”

Jeremy pecked his cheek and ran up the stairs, eager to get clean so that they could pick up where they left off. Michael was waiting for him and, although they had all the time in the world, he didn’t want to waste a second of it.


End file.
